Tag: halloween

What do we know of the Paranormal? Do ghosts actually exist? Does the search into the unknown fill you with wonder? We fear what we don’t know because we don’t understand it. If a door closes by itself, could there be a logical explanation for it?

There are many questions into this phenomena because there is very little “evidence” recorded. Can recording devices, special cameras, and meters capture what evades the naked eye?

This Halloween season, take a journey with a group of Paranormal Investigators as they try to answer these questions and more. In Beyond the Darkness, this Paranormal Thriller novel explores the possibilities that exist between this world and the next. It examines our own self reflecting questions on what happens after we die.

What better way to get into the spirit of Halloween? Beyond the Darkness. Discover for yourself what awaits.

Just in time for the Halloween season, my new novel, Beyond the Darkness is coming Friday October 13th, 2017 but is available for pre-order here.

But what is Beyond the Darkness?

Lead Paranormal Investigator Lucas Mitchell is set out to prove that the events that haunted his childhood were real. He wants more than anything to find out if what happened to his mother was the result of Paranormal Activity. When he and his team accept a new case to investigate a haunting in Arizona, it starts out as a normal investigation. As the team dives deeper into the history of the house, they quickly discover its sinister past. And for Lucas, a connection that hits close to home. To uncover the secrets behind the haunting, the team must face a chilling truth that may have unforeseen consequences. Now, here is a sneak peek into: Beyond the Darkness

Amelia Walton placed the last of the dishes in the cabinet and closed the dishwasher door. The house felt empty and cold. Ted had left to pick up their daughter Colleen from a friend’s home. He had asked her to come with him knowing how she felt about being alone in the home, but she resisted the temptation and decided to stay.

She was a strong woman, not one to give in to irrational fear. She was sure that if there was something in her home, something that didn’t belong, she wasn’t going to let it win. Ted had never experienced anything, and in spite of their daughter’s ongoing nightmares, he believed there must be a reasonable explanation for it all.

She didn’t want to let her husband down and admit she was afraid. That was why she chose to stay behind. He was a kind man whom she loved with all her heart. She needed to show him that she could be strong. Besides, she thought, it was only a half an hour round trip. She surely could qualm her fears for 30 minutes.

Moving out of the kitchen and passing through the living room, she stopped suddenly, feeling as if someone was behind her. She quickly turned around. No one was there.

For all her 41 years, God had protected her, and she was sure he would now. She touched the gold cross that hung around her neck, bringing it up to her lips. She kissed it gently before letting it go. She patted her damp hands against the fibers of her dress. The dampness must be perspiration, she surmised, which troubled her because she didn’t feel hot.

She made her way to the stairs and ascended them, stopping just before the second floor landing. The upstairs hall was dark. She began to get that same sensation as before that someone was there waiting for her.

“Amelia, don’t let nerves win,” she said aloud to herself.

She blamed a lot of what she experienced to a recent bout with an illness that kept her in bed for the better part of three weeks. She would feel cold and then hot. Her vision would blur, and an unusual nervousness would overcome her. She named it the “irrational illness” because it made her quite irrational.

The upstairs hall led to four doors. The door on the far right side was to her bedroom. The door directly in front of the landing, which remained open, was to a bathroom. To the left of the landing a little further down the hall was another smaller bathroom for Colleen. The last door at the end of the left side of the hall was Colleen’s room.

She shook her head and took the last three steps. She had just stopped on the landing when an overwhelming feeling grabbed hold of her. Darkness consumed the upstairs hall. The sun had set a half hour before, but the glow from the downstairs lamp did little to penetrate the complete blackness that lay before her.

Sensing there was something in the darkness, she remained still. She could see a radiant glow emanating from her open bedroom door. The moonlight was trying to aide her from outside the bedroom window.

She resisted the urge to run and had just turned towards her bedroom when she heard something behind her. Frozen, she held her breath and listened.

“You don’t.”

The voice out of the darkness was almost too faint to hear, but she was sure she heard it. Her heart began to race as icicles poked her arms. She waited, straining to hear anything but met only silence.

She turned around, but she couldn’t see thru the darkness down the hall toward her daughter’s room. Feeling a bit foolish, she turned away towards her room once more.

“You don’t belong…”

The voice was unmistakable this time. It was as if it was spoken from directly behind her. The air was getting heavier. She willed her legs to move, but she remained still. It sounded like a whisper, a faint droning from behind her ears.

“You don’t belong…..”

The voices, oh, God, it sounded like two or three, she thought. She felt something on her left and flinched back. Regaining the use of her legs, she took a step backwards.

“You don’t belong…”

The voices seemed to whisper in both of her ears. She put her hands up to her ears to try and block them out. She couldn’t tell where they were coming from. There was no one else in the house yet she knew she wasn’t imagining them.

She fought hard to catch her breath. She wanted to run out of the house. She prayed for her husband to return home. She took two more steps backwards nervously looking left and right. It was as if the voices were all around her. The pressure in her chest grew, and she was only able to take shallow breaths. She knew this wasn’t her imagination. The upstairs hall felt suffocating. The eyes of darkness were upon her, staring at her.

“You don’t belong…”

The voices swirling around her grew louder, and she heard the anger with which they spoke. “This can’t be happening,’ she thought. She moved another step backwards. Sensing the stairs near, she used her hand to grope behind but found nothing but air.

“You don’t belong here.”

There was a child-like quality to the voices, she thought. Where were they coming from? Another step back. Feeling around, she found the banister.

“You don’t belong here.”

Afraid to turn her back on the unseen presence but knowing she couldn’t stand there, she turned around towards the stairs. Just then she heard a male voice boom from the darkness.

“You don’t belong here!”

She screamed as the voice hissed out. She lost her footing as she stepped off the landing and felt her body fall forward. She cried out as her body toppled downward. Her body tumbled down the stairs, head banging against the wall. She felt something strike her rib-cage. Her body continued rolling, each thud more painful than the last, until she finally landed on the floor.

Her head throbbed, and her body felt as if it were on fire. She was unable to move. Pain coursed through her entire body. Searing currents of heat radiated up her spine. She tried to call out, but she felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs.

She tilted her head to the left and then to the right. Currents of pain shot through her body, behind her eyes and across her temples. She looked back to the stairs, climbing the stairs with her eyes until she saw the form of a man on the top stair. The form was smiling at her. She felt her heart begin to gallop as the form took a step down the stairs. The lights blinked off.

It’s that time of year again. Halloween. I have been working on the completion of my next book, Beyond the Darkness. It is in the final editing stage. I am hoping to release it by the early part of next year.

People ask me why I like scary stories. What inspires me to write stores with dark content? I will say not all my stories are scary but there is definitely a darkness to them. I know a few people who are horrified to be horrified. The thought of watching a scary movie or reading a spooky story sends shivers down their spine. That inspires me. If I can put words to paper that invokes that kind of reaction than I have connected with the reader on some subconscious level.

Why do people go to Halloween attractions? Would anyone step in to a haunted house if there was a real chance that harm could befall them? No. There is a certain adrenaline that comes from being taken away from your comfort zone if only for a few minutes. That is what propels me to write the types of stories I do. I am a student of fear as I am still learning what scares people and how I can incorporate that in to my stories.

Halloween is a good teacher for all the lessons to be learned are out in full display. What lurks in the shadows just beyond your field of vision? Did you see something from the corner of your eye just to turn around and find nothing there? Why did a chill run down your spine when you walked into that room? Did you hear a noise from another part of the house when no one else is home? When you are all alone, are you really all alone?

As you enjoy this Halloween season, be safe. Halloween is a time to embrace our darkside a bit but also to have fun. But just know that fear will be waiting for you from Beyond the Darkness.

In keeping with the Halloween tradition here is another subject fitting for an October night.

I have often been asked if I believe in the paranormal. I always use caution before I answer that question but not because I am uncertain in my own beliefs but sometimes when people ask the question, its usually pointed in a certain direction and I don’t want to find myself in a heated debate on ones opinions.

For my part, I do believe in the paranormal. I believe that there is something out there, more than we know. I have had some personal experiences growing up that I simply cannot explain. Let it be said that I do not believe every door closing by itself is a result of some paranormal event. No. The way I look at it, I need to be convinced.

If I encounter an event that on the surface is hard to explain, I like to find a reasonable explanation first. If a door closed by itself my first thought is that a window must be open.

Some people believe in the paranormal because of religious reasons, that is not me. I have my own beliefs that I don’t share. It is personal and not meant to be a topic of conversation. I believe in the paranormal or should I say the possibility of the paranormal based on personal experiences I have never been able to explain. Do ghosts exist? Do spirits linger around this world looking to cross over? For certain, I have no concrete evidence to say one way or the other. Again I like facts.

I do believe in the possibility and I believe the more we look in to the subject and apply some common sense to the way we examine it and not let our faith or our imaginations get the best of us, one day we might start to get some real reliable evidence one way or the other.

I find the subject interesting and with anything that interests me I like to learn more. I am not about to jump off a cliff believing I can fly when everything I know about gravity tells me otherwise. I don’t know enough about the paranormal to say it doesn’t exist so I am left to educate myself for my own curiosity sake.

Whether you believe or not, the unknown is an interesting subject matter to explore. Perhaps one day, the more we explore the unknown, we might get to know what was previously described as the unknown.